


shouting into space and praying for an echo

by 0toybox0



Series: A Bitter Elegy of Broken Hearts [2]
Category: Original Work
Genre: #saveclementine3k40, Angst, pain and suffering
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-18
Updated: 2021-03-18
Packaged: 2021-03-27 16:47:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,439
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30125835
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/0toybox0/pseuds/0toybox0
Summary: A series where I'm gonna put supplementary Clementine-oriented content that's not essential for Bitter Elegy, but I just really wanted to write. The whole thing's gonna be told through audio log transcripts because I like to challenge myself.
Series: A Bitter Elegy of Broken Hearts [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2119659
Kudos: 1





	shouting into space and praying for an echo

**Log 1**

_ [click.] _

**Uhh, okay, I think it’s working. Test, test, test? Ah, the little light’s flashing. Cool. Hello. This is Clementine Dante, and this is my testing log. Um, I forget things a lot, and I’m bad at writing shit down, so Green recommended recording my tests. I found this** **_ancient_ ** **handheld recorder when I went scavenging for supplies and patched it up. Kinda surprised it still turns on.**

_ [they clear their throat.] _ **Anyway, this is my first experiment log. I figure I should probably tell you what I’m working on? Okay, so-** _ [rustling, a few small thumps.] _ **-the short of it is I’m trying to time travel.**

**Haha, I know, right? Crazy. It sounds batshit insane. But I swear, it’s real, and I’m getting close.** _ [more thumps, then a click and a whirring noise.]  _ **Hear that, dear listeners? That’s the Heavy Gamma converter, or as I like to call it: the H.G. Wells.** _ [a short laugh, followed by a snort.]  _ **Sorry, sorry, I’m a scifi geek.**

**Aaaanyway, H.G. here is gonna help me see if there’s even a clear spacetime continuum to travel on. I built the first prototype… ah… three years ago? Something like that. It went terribly wrong, set the carpet on fire. But I’ve refined it over time, and now I’m on my eleventh iteration. It’s gonna work, dear listeners, I’m sure. I made sure all the fuses connect, and the input and output are as even as they can be, and that the plug it’s in is grounded. I covered every possible base, so I’m gonna test it out now.**

_ [whirring increases in speed and volume. It sounds like a fan is working overtime.] _

_ [Clementine has to shout over the noise.]  _ **Hear that? Engine’s booting up!** _ [clicking begins, loud and quick.]  _ **And that’s the scanning apparatus. It uses a form of echolocation to function outside of the three dimensions-**

_ [Clementine is cut off by a loud explosion. Swearing is heard, then the recording ends.] _

* * *

**Log 2**

_ [click.] _

**Stupid, stupid piece of** **_trash!_ ** **Turn o- oh. Okay. We’re recording. God, that took forever.**

**Hellloooo again, dear listeners. Been a while. This damn recorder is held together by nothing by duct tape and spite. Blew itself apart in the blast. I spent an eternity fixing it up.**

**I’m alright, by the way, just got hit by some flying debris. Black eye and some smoke inhalation, but I’m fine otherwise. Mom grounded me -- not a shocker. I wasn’t allowed to visit my lab or use any of my tools. “No new inventions until you learn your lesson from the old one.” Well. Been two weeks, and I apologized a lot. Cleaned up all the scrap metal, and now I’m back in here. Hallelujah. I think I was two days away from losing my mind.**

_ [the sound of crunching glass under boots.] _

**Rats, looked like it blew some of my tubes apart, too. Ugh, it took so long to find those…**

_ [shuffling.] _

**‘Kay, anyway, the reason I’m talking to you is because I’ve been working with Green and figuring out some** **_awesome_ ** **stuff. See, so, Green-**

**Wait, hold on, let me back up. Green’s my friend. She’s… uh… not exactly corporeal? She says she isn’t a ghost or anything. I have no idea what she could be, but point is she’s floaty and knows a lot about everything. She says she’s everywhere? Like, her consciousness is sorta split around. The most of it is here with me, most of the time, but sometimes she spaces out big time.**

**I thought it was just a thing she does. After all, I’ve only known her for like a year, and my mind tends to wander too. But anyway, a few days ago I just asked her about it flat-out. She laughed and told me she wasn’t fully** **_here._ ** **I asked her what the hell that meant, and she sat me down to explain.**

**Uhh, lemme try to remember all of it.** _ [more shuffling.]  _ **She said that she’s not bound to only be in one place at once, like you or me. She explained it like being a tree. She has roots all over the place, and they’re all her, but mostly just little pieces of her. Then she’s also got branches that reach off in other places. The Green I know is like the trunk. She’s the center of all of it; the most present.**

**So, what does all that have to do with my research, dear listeners? Well!** _ [Clementine’s voice seems to bubble up with excitement.]  _ **Green isn’t just in many places on** **_this_ ** **Earth at once. She’s** **_everywhere._ ** **Like, all throughout different dimensions. She’s even met** **_me_ ** **more than once.**

**So I was right! Stuff** **_does_ ** **exist outside this single realm. We’re just** **_one_ ** **of the** **_billions,_ ** **possibly** **_trillions_ ** **of threads in the giant quilt that makes up the universe. We’re not alone. There’s so much more out there.**

_ [there’s silence for a few long beats.] _

**I’m going to find a way to look into those other worlds. Now that I know for sure it’s possible, H.G. and Green and I are going to crack this.** _ [Clementine’s breath hitches.]  _ **Maybe I’ll even find somewhere where… she’s still…**

_ [another long silence.] _

**Fuck. Hah. I gotta get to work. I’ll check back soon.**

_ [recording ends.] _

* * *

**Log 3**

_ [click.] _

_ [Clementine is mimicking a character from an old movie: Doc from Back to the Future.]  _ **“Marty, where we’re going, we don’t need roads!”**

**Excuse my obscure references, but we did it!**

**Not… fully. And it’s taken a long time. But it’s almost finished. The H.G. Wells 12.0 is operational! It hasn’t even blown a fuse yet!** _ [their excitement leaks into their voice.]  _ **Okay. Okay. Calming down.** _ [they take a few deep breaths.] _

**Let’s start from the beginning. The last time you heard from me was five months ago. I’ve been working really damn hard on this thing, alongside Green. She’s done most of the heavy lifting. Giving me information about the other dimensions and stuff-**

_ [there’s a pause.] _

**Green says I should give myself more credit. She says she’s just the lab assistant.** _ [Clementine chuckles.]  _ **A very indispensable lab assistant.**

**The H.G. Wells should be completely finished and running in a couple more weeks. I just need a bit more information and a few more parts. Luckily, Mom’s going out on a supply run tomorrow, and she promised to pick some stuff up for me.**

**… I’m not telling her what I’m doing.** _ [they sound guilty, sheepish.]  _ **She knows I’ve been working really hard on something, but I told her it was a surprise. She and Kiara never come into the lab anyway. They’re a bit scared of it, I think.**

**I just hope that when I activate this thing and carry out my plan… we’ll all be so much happier for it.**

_ [pause.] _

**Green’s telling me I need sleep.** _ [they chuckle again.]  _ **I haven’t been getting much of that lately. It’s… currently 3:48 AM. I should turn in for the night. Stay tuned, dear listeners, because this is going to rock the universe to its very core, I know it.**

_ [recording ends.] _

* * *

**Log 4**

_ [click.] _

_ [long, long silence. For a moment it’s unclear if the recorder was meant to be turned on at all.] _

**I know I said I’d come back when everything was finished. But it’s the next day.**

**Something went very, very wrong.**

**For once, I didn’t cause it, but… it happened anyway. And-** _ [they sound distressed. They lower their voice.]  _ **Mom… Mom is dead.**

**It happened quickly. There wasn’t anything anyone could do by the time she got to us. She was out for supplies… ran into some people blaming her for the war. They… they shot her before she could react.**

**She crawled home. She wanted to say goodbye to me and Kiara. We were there until she stopped breathing.**

_ [soft, wet sniffles can be heard. When Clementine speaks again, it’s tight and tearful.] _

**Green disappeared. I don’t know where she went or- or what I’m supposed to do next. We had a plan, but…**

**I can’t do this alone. I can’t. It’s just me and Kia now. Do you know what that** **_feels_ ** **like? It’s- it’s this** **_deep_ ** **loneliness. This ache that just eats you alive.**

**I don’t want to work on H.G. anymore. But I have to.**

**This stupid hunk of metal might be my only chance at making everything better. And I mean** **_everything._ **

**Mom. I swear to you. I will not let you go down without fighting like hell to get you back.**

_ [recording ends.] _


End file.
